The taste of home

Smell of Hometown-I knew when I wrote this title that it was not eye-catching at all, even vulgar. But I can't find a more suitable way to express my feelings.

When year after year, year after year, I walked through my life and polished me into an old woman. And I have no strength to fight back, so I have to admit my cowardice. Sometimes I try to look back at the place where time has passed, only to find that it left me nothing, but secretly put down many, many gifts of life. Time has not wronged me.

For example, it left its distant hometown there. The more I look back, the clearer my hometown becomes. It seems to have deliberately buried a line of memories, secretly tying one end of the line to my heart and the other end to my hometown.

I seem to miss my hometown more and more. Always in a certain mood, the thread rooted in my heart will pull me back to my hometown village. I can't help thinking. I remembered my childhood and everything related to youth, which made me forget the present and even how old I am.

Especially in recent years, homesickness has become more and more serious, and even the most beautiful places in the world are there. And when every "year" of calculating life comes, my memory becomes particularly rich. No matter from hearing to sight to taste, memories are so real, and the whole body is surrounded by the smell of that year. Whenever I put my infinite affection back, hold on to every clue in my memory, collect every ray of the flavor of my hometown, and piece together the pictures of my hometown for the New Year, my hometown will be lively and vivid.

That year's hometown flavor, even if we build a splendid sky with gold and silver and create a gluttonous feast with delicacies, can't be so full.

In the north, there must be snow to set off the Spring Festival. I can't imagine what it should be like without the snow-covered Spring Festival. I was married once and lived in Jiangnan for several years with my children. In my eyes, the scene of that year is a bit outdated, so I can't confirm that it was the New Year.

(2)

"The north wind blows, and there is snow in Yukikaze in the wind, and the year has come ..." This song, since I was sensible, my mother hummed as soon as she approached the root of the year, with a high frequency. I can't feel the sadness of the white-haired girl, but I can hear the taste of that year from my mother's gentle and thin tone. You don't have to turn over the calendar card to know the New Year.

So, I began to think, will my parents buy me new clothes and shoes? I can't help but yearn for the feeling of putting on new clothes during the Spring Festival, picking up small lanterns made of canned bottles at night, and showing off new clothes from door to door with my good playmates. I will also think, will mom buy me a new headdress? I want a pair of pink, green, yellow and red. The scarf made of soft tussah silk tied up the messy hair and pulled out a petal, which was the favorite of all the little girls in the village at that time!

The flavor of that year, in my expectation, is getting stronger and stronger.

(3)

As soon as Inner Mongolia entered the twelfth lunar month, it was time to kill the Year Pig. On a quiet morning, if I suddenly hear the whine of pigs piercing the sky and echoing over the village, I will suddenly wake up, push away the big civet under the bed with me and sit up inexplicably and excitedly! In the twelfth lunar month, pigs wail almost every morning! I thought, when will the big fat pig in my pigsty be slaughtered? Although I gave up and lost my life, I still wanted to eat its meat, which was delicious. If I don't sacrifice it, this year will not last. The purring of pigs, in my heart, is not sadness but happiness, which is the opening movement of the year! It's as good as the white-haired girl hummed by my mother, but louder and more exciting for adults and children!

For as long as I can remember, every year at this time, I will climb the northernmost hillside of the village, stand in the snow and get a panoramic view of the village. Smoke from kitchen chimneys permeated the whole village, as if it smelled pork. The winter sunshine scatters golden light all over the sky, reflecting the village surrounded by snow, just like a fairy tale. The combination of the blue sky and the smoke rising from the kitchen has produced a kind of power and dragged me into a deep emotion. I feel that the whole village is filled with the flavor of the year.

If you want to know whose pig howls in the morning, you can see whose yard has bright pig blood sprayed on the snow, just like the red berries in the New Year pictures, blooming in the snow. If someone's door suddenly opens, there will be a thick fog and a thick smell of killing pigs. If I don't live up to expectations, I will swallow saliva.

For the taste of this memory, I have planned to go back to my hometown with my second brother and second sister living in Dalian many times, and spend the New Year with my eldest brother living in Inner Mongolia, so that my eldest brother can kill a pig and eat some pig-killing vegetables to relieve the suffering of lovesickness in these years, but never came. After leaving my hometown, I feel that the dishes that kill pigs are not the taste of pure memory. Some people say that I am melodramatic, but I am not.

Under normal circumstances, my big fat pig was slaughtered around Laba Festival. Although it will waste more bean cakes for a few more days, my mother said that she hoped it would be fatter to ensure a year's oil and water. I was very excited on the first day of killing pigs and followed my mother everywhere. I especially like to see her two pots of pickled cabbage cut full, which are green and yellow on the pot table. That's the main supporting role of killing pig dishes tomorrow!

The next day, at dawn, my parents got up and went to the kang. Soon, the person who invited the pig killer came, holding a pig killer knife and wearing a shiny apron. After a while, my pig howled and plum blossoms were scattered in the yard!

On this day, the family was very lively. Because of a little pig, my parents invited me twice a day, two days and four days, and invited people with friendship and people who had been in debt for a year to eat meat! That kind of excitement is enough to resist the outdoor cold of MINUS 30 degrees!

After killing pigs, they began to kill chickens and geese. Delicious food that can't be eaten in normal days, because the Chinese New Year has begun to enrich the taste buds of the family.

The flavor of my hometown, because I sacrificed my mother's carefully raised livestock and poultry for four seasons, has been left in the taste perception system, enough to touch and chew for a lifetime.

(4)

At the end of the year, the most interesting place in the village was the supply and marketing cooperative. Buy some New Year pictures, some stickers, some firecrackers, weigh several kilograms of sugar, several kilograms of frozen persimmons, several kilograms of frozen pears and several kilograms of frozen fish. Every farmer feels the money in his pocket to make a plan. My father is a wage earner, and no one else has money to play with. But you can be poor on weekdays and rich in years. Even if the pockets are insufficient, try to meet the needs of the festival. The door of the supply and marketing cooperative opens in the morning and closes at dusk. During the period, there was an endless stream of people. Adults may have children with long-awaited faces in their hands, and my sister and I are willing to stay with our parents. We can always eat a few colorful sweets first. Many years ago, adults could not bear to refuse the outstretched hand of their children.

The snow under my feet is singing, and my mouth is sucking candy and making a sizzling sound. The monotonous frequency, at that moment, is the most beautiful rhythm.

When all kinds of fried products, steamed bread, sticky bean bags, tofu, frozen skin and frozen meat, big dumplings, shredded radish dumplings and so on. It has been frozen and stored, and the new year's goods are almost ready. It is either hung on the beam of the barn or buried in a vat surrounded by snow. These two places became the most attractive places 30 years ago.

Throughout the preparation year of more than a month, the cat became fat and didn't want to catch mice. Dogs get fat and become picky eaters; The children's bellies are bulging and their faces look like full moons. Even adults who can eat and drink more with their children are flushed.

In the cold winter, the flavor of this year is overflowing.

At the end of every year, every household should do a general cleaning: sweep the dust, paste the shed and walls with paper, starch the bedding, scrub the glass and clean the courtyard. It's almost a year, and during the Spring Festival, every household's clothes are much cleaner than usual, and it feels brand-new.

A small year is like a big year, which is a festival climax years ago. As soon as the off-year arrives, Kitchen God returns to heaven to report his work to the Jade Emperor. When eating jiaozi in the evening of off-year, first take out some for Kitchen God who has been on duty on the stove, and then light incense. After burning a wick of incense, my mother knocked three times respectfully, chanting: Kitchen God, I'll send you away. You should pray for more blessings for your family when you go to heaven to ensure their safety. Then, he took down the portrait of the kitchen god, which said that God would speak well and keep peace, and lit it in the brazier. The portrait turned to sheet piling ash, and the kitchen god ascended to heaven. If one year I see my mother give Kitchen God a present, I will stare at the paper ash, as if I saw Kitchen God blinking, and I will get cold all over, so I will quickly avoid it.

When I grow up, I will understand that any traditional festival in China is actually full of myths or superstitions. But without the implantation of these colors, will the festival become pale and tasteless?

After the off-year, the tall lamppost stands up. Red lanterns and colorful flags float above the white snow, dazzling under the blue sky. The wind shield also roared on the pole! Firecracker racks have also been set up, Spring Festival couplets have also been posted on the door and window frames, colorful hanging stickers have floated on the door and window frames, and New Year pictures have also been posted on the walls with new paper. On the 30th of this year, people will wear colorful clothes and come with joy.

(5)

On the morning of the 30 th, it was just dawn, and it didn't take long for the rooster to crow, and firecrackers woke up the whole village! Dad also released ten eight kicks early. Mother has been standing in the kitchen, starting to light the stove and busy cooking the lunch reunion dinner. At the age when I couldn't help her, she cooperated with her father in everything. Mother took out a charcoal fire from the stove pit and put it in a charcoal fire basin, so that the children could kang together. She felt that the room was warm. That kind of happiness has been shelved in my heart, and I think of that kind of warmth every year.

Years ago, more than a month of preparation, I couldn't wait to count everything on the table. The days are short in winter, so we usually have two meals there. At about ten o'clock in the morning, the whole family sat on the hot kang, surrounded by a table full of dishes and bowls, and ate the most abundant New Year's Eve dinner of the year!

After dinner, adults and children strolled away contentedly. When we meet on the road, we will ask each other loudly, how many dishes did your family cook at noon today? Hey, hey, let's just say that people who answer this question say that ten and eight dishes are few! Many times, my family has twelve dishes, and I can still roughly tell which ones are there.

(6)

On New Year's Eve, there is a highlight that must be sung every year. As soon as the play appeared, there was a strong sense of mystery in the annual flavor. That kind of mystery begins from the moment you want your genealogy and ancestral tablets! Genealogy is usually hung in the north of the kitchen, with a table in front, memorial tablets, flowers, candlesticks and incense burner bowls on the table. We should also give our ancestors a lively table to eat. The whole table is colorful. Under the control of all this, we must do it well before the family lunch to show our respect for the gods.

At dusk, adults and children should carry lanterns, incense and firecrackers to burn paper money and go to the crossroads at the head of the village to welcome their ancestors back for the New Year. In the last year, please invite Jiaozi, and then let the cigarettes on the altar fill the air, and the red candle will be brilliant! Then, the whole family can get on the kang and eat jiaozi around the steaming table. From the moment when our ancestors invited us home, adults and children were afraid to say unlucky things, fearing that our ancestors would be taboo and that one year would not be satisfactory. This point will be firmly remembered by adults and children, and they dare not slip up.

The mystery on the table is interspersed with memories of my whole childhood. When I walked into the altar in the outhouse, I was too careful to speak loudly. I firmly believe that I can't see the ancestors at the table, but they can definitely see me. I'm afraid that if I accidentally offend them, they will show their true colors to scare me. I'm really scared! There will be vivid people telling stories every year, and I believe them.

(7)

After inviting Jiaozi to dinner in 2008, the sun had long since disappeared. My parents went into the barn, took out frozen persimmons, pears and fruits, and put them all in a big basin. Then they scooped a few spoonfuls of water without fruit, waiting for the crystal ice core to grow outside the peel. When you pinch it with your hand, the ice core will break. Then take a sip with your mouth and turn it into soft fruit, sweet and sour juice, which is simply wonderful! Extremely greasy!

After my mother took care of everything, she began to prepare a "purple" jiaozi. When I am old enough to start working, I will be in charge of Jiaozi's work, that is, my parents and I will work together. The stuffing should be big and the skin should be thin, which is mom's requirement. Jiaozi in the middle of the night, eight steel shovels. Whoever eats it will be lucky and rich. Strangely, the father of the head of the family seldom eats first in his memory. Mother said that he was born in poverty. Most of the steel shovels were eaten by four children.

I remember the warmth of the whole day when I was 30. The kitchen has been steaming, and the charcoal on the kang and brazier has been constant. This is the warmest day of the whole winter. The child's frostbitten hand is a little sore and itchy because of this warmth. My parents took out melon seeds, candy and cigarettes early and put them on the table for the villagers to visit in twos and threes. It seems that the whole village is a peaceful family.

In those years when there was no TV in my memory, after the New Year's Eve dinner, children's fun was to put on new clothes and carry lanterns to visit. Adults also visit each other and pay New Year greetings early! At the moment of "purple" at twelve o'clock, the taste of the year rose to the extreme! Grab the year, which means grab the god of wealth! Therefore, many people can't wait for midnight to turn purple! I can't wait to start at ten o'clock. Some people are very calm and pinch the hour to see the god of wealth. I won the lottery at home, starting at about eleven o'clock. Therefore, firecrackers can last for nearly two hours.

It was also at this time that people who scattered the god of wealth began to go door to door. Holding more than a dozen gods of God of Wealth in his hand, he walked into people's yards and began to shout auspicious words: God of Wealth has come, and your family's fortune has come! Some are accompanied by Allegro. No way, so, at this time, adults should prepare a few dollars in their pockets in advance and send them to the people who scatter the god of wealth. Sometimes it turns purple, and there will be a few gods of wealth who can't get rid of it, which is unlucky.

No matter what age, someone will study business! At midnight on the first day of New Year's Day, the God of Wealth made a lot of money.

(8)

When it turns purple, it won't arrive in the morning. As long as one family gets ahead, it will attract everyone to grab it. As a result, the whole village began to set off firecrackers and fireworks, and the sound of scratching and creaking was endless! Red lanterns lit early are dotted with the smoke of firecrackers. Midnight in the whole village is as wonderful as a fairyland! The children watched the adults set off firecrackers and cheered. From time to time, they had to cover their ears and run away, because when they kicked off, the sound was no less than thunder! At the moment of purple, smoke filled the sky above the village and the air was filled with the smell of explosives. It smells good. It really smells like Chinese New Year!

Because of purple, firewood piles are lit by flying saucers and drilling monkeys every year! Adults rushed to the burning firewood pile from all directions to help put out the fire. The children clap their hands and applaud, and the flames are soaring, which is more enjoyable than watching firecrackers! The children are completely unaware of the danger of fire. Adults will say to people on fire, this is a good thing, but this is a fire! In fact, people who get angry are angry inside! That's hard-cut firewood. This is also a scene that has never been forgotten in The Taste of Hometown. In this scene, many people hate jokes and stories (some evil people deliberately take this trip to retaliate).

When it is purple, my mother seldom comes out to watch firecrackers. She is busy cooking "purple" jiaozi by the pot. Jiaozi, which is steaming hot, should also worship ancestors, light incense and burn paper money, so that children can sit around the table and eat jiaozi. Whoever wants to be the first to eat the steel jump in the jiaozi is happy to jump high! I often eat it, too. The happiest moment of the year has always remained in my memory.

(9)

After eating jiaozi, naughty children continued to drop by, throwing whips, throwing cannons and enjoying flowers. At night in the village, among the four seasons, only the night on the 30th (to the third day) is not quiet, and there are children's frolicking and firecrackers. Adults should keep the altar (from New Year's Eve to the third day, three nights), keep the residual temperature of the charcoal brazier and stay up late, and not break the incense and candlelight of their ancestors. This is how I spent my childhood and adolescence. Most of the time, when it's almost dawn and the chicken crows, the children are willing to get into the hot bed and sleep.

Early in the morning, firecrackers louder than spring thunder awakened the village that had just fallen asleep. The sun shone through the frost on the glass window and the child refused to get up. People who walk on stilts, dance yangko and run dry boats have entered the village one after another. When the sound of blowing sounded, there was no need to scream. The children skidded up, cleaned themselves up, ate some meals cooked by their mothers for the first day, and followed the stilts team. I also like to watch walking on stilts and go shopping with my friends. Stringing to the door of every household, I found red firecrackers covered in snow, in piles. If I look at it from a distance, it looks like several big red flowers in the snow.

Chinese New Year is not only the satisfaction of eating and drinking, but also the excitement of gongs and drums! Colorful country actors make faces to tease adults and children. Wherever you go, you will attract a group of adults and children to follow. These rural recreational activities, which were not available on weekdays, continued until the fifteenth day of the first month. If any family has money, the stilt team will wriggle around in their yard for money. I think this is what their leaders have visited and heard.

( 10)

Looking back now, the taste of hometown really started from the twelfth lunar month and then lasted until the fifteenth day of the first month. Fifteen years later, all the beauty related to Chinese New Year customs, from taste, hearing, vision to emotion, gradually faded away.

Fifteenth, the last climax of the year, is also very grand. After that, the nursery rhyme hanging on the children's lips is: after the tenth five-year plan, there is no cake, no meat ... it's time to meet the spring shortage. Fat cats, dogs, and children all began to lose weight bit by bit.

After leaving my hometown, whenever the Spring Festival comes, I can't help but recall the scene of the Spring Festival in my hometown. Actually, I haven't talked about the village full of flavor.

The earth wrapped in silver; Smoke rising from the kitchen; The villagers who were busy at the roots in those days, the laughter of the children sprinkled over the village … If you close your eyes at this time, everything will be surrounded.

The most unforgettable thing is the busy parents. Parents are the protagonists in The Taste of Hometown, and all the happiness comes from them. Every time I recall, my parents' busy figure will always turn into a picture and be laid out in front of me.

( 1 1)

After I got married, I stayed in Beijing for the New Year every year except for a few 30 years. After 30, the first day or the second day, I will travel by car and take my children to a different place to feel the New Year.

I will treat you with dignity at home for the New Year. Every year, we will purchase new year's goods in advance. In the process of preparing everything, there will always be emotions in my heart that drive me to restore the taste of my hometown.

New Year's Eve never decided to go out to eat. I am willing to manage and let the children see my various busyness in the kitchen. Occasionally they will ask me curiously, Mom, what are you doing? When I answer, I may talk about my grandparents' past and how my uncles and aunts and I looked forward to the New Year when we were young.

I insist on the custom of making children old. Even if they are sleepy, they must eat "purple" jiaozi. In jiaozi, we will specially wrap a few more steel bars to increase the probability that every family can eat them and make them happy. The rest of the customs, trapped in the urban environment, children can not understand.

( 12)

The mountain is not that mountain, the house is not that house, and the people who sit around a table with me for a reunion dinner are not from a family. The past is not the past. ...

And people, therefore, scattered, can no longer gather the complete family 32 years ago. In fact, I am not obsessed with my brother and sister for half a century, but with my parents' absence. So there is no chance to completely restore the taste of hometown.

In my hometown, my parents spent their youth and middle age, and my brothers and sisters grew up in my hometown.

How far is the road? How high is the sky?

Hongyan flies, and the water is far away.

How I want to go back to that day.

I still have my parents' robes. ..............

Another year has come, 202 1.

Before every year, I can't help but recall the taste of my hometown.

And the taste of my hometown has become a deep homesickness that I will never disperse.